Why I still love superheroes

I've never given up on comics. Not entirely. I've gone through periods, sometimes of years, where I stopped buying them (the mid-90s precipitated the last such period), but I've never for a moment considered getting rid of my old books because, on some level, I knew I'd be back.

Omitting the nostalgia factor (because I'm honestly not all that sentimental), and ignoring the possibility of an arrested development factor :), of course.

When I was a kid, I was the audience for comics. I may even have been a bit young for the Marvel books I preferred when I first picked up a comic. I was lucky--to a certain extent comics evolved so that by the time I was a teenager comics were aimed at a slightly older age group (i.e. me). I kept with them through college, for the most part. I kept with them after I was married, right up until crossovers and foil covers sent me running. (It's no good having your favorite characters appear in a slew of books if all they do is stand in the background and look menacing, which is all they get to do when there's a guest cast of fifty. Crossovers meant no character development, no character interplay. No character work meant no interest on my part.)

You know, though...I'm over 40 now. I'm married. I have kids. Even with the age of the current intended comic audience, I'm probably something like 20 years past it. Shouldn't I be reading, I don't know, Tom Clancy novels or Good Housekeeping? Maybe some Steven King? (Although I liked King when I was younger, after Cujo I pretty much gave up on him. When it comes to non-graphic literature I tend to read historical non-fiction, although I have a thing for Nero Wolfe books as well, and at one time was an avid science fiction fan.)

I don't think it's the combination of words and pictures, because if that were the case I'd be reading non-superhero comics as well, even manga, which bores me to tears. And I'm not.

It's not the fighting, because although there's something cathartic in it (especially if you're in a bad mood when you pick the book up), if a book is all battles, it's boring.

It's not the costumes. (You know, I'm just not going to talk about costumes right now. :))

It's not, goodness knows, the plots.

It's not, despite what I said earlier, the characterization, although this is definitely an essential element--seeing real-world concerns play out against a fantastic background.

There are plenty of things I don't care about--could the Hulk beat Superman in a fight?--which seem to put me outside of the mainstream of comic fandom.

It seems a little strange, but some of what I enjoy most about comics is stereotypically girlie stuff--relationships, personal development, character growth.

But on its own that stuff is unappealing--I've never been a fan of soap operas or romance novels, and I generally detest romantic comedies and other relationship-focused films. On its own that sort of thing is deadly dull. (I love Law and Order, where the meat is the plot and personal stuff is barely there unless you look hard--it flavors the show but is not its core. I generally dislike similar shows where the characters' personal lives take up more screen time than the plot.) But as a part of something else (the battles, the plots, the shapeshifting aliens, the awesome armor, the interdimensional travel between sections of the multiverse) it's interesting because it's not all that's going on.

I need to care about the characters. If there's not enough individualized personal stuff going on, I won't--why should I care about Gecko Girl and her sidekick Salamander Lad saving the Brooklyn Bridge if all I know about them is that they like saving bridges and hanging out at the Lizard Lair? On the other hand, if there's too much personal stuff going on, that's also no good--why should I care about a story that's nothing but Gecko Girl shopping for shoes and skeet-shooting with her best bud the Flying Ferret?

On the whole, comics--the comics I tend to stick with--strike a reasonable balance. Not necessarily in every issue, but over a period of several issues you'll get enough about the character to make you want to see what s/he does next, and enough good story to maintain your interest in the character. Possibly the pictures-and-words combination helps with this; I feel firmly that what you see in the art is as much a part of the story as are the words (if Gecko Girl is shown scowling while the word balloon says "Gosh, Salamander Lad, you did a fine job changing the tire on the Geckomobile this afternoon!" you know perfectly well that there's something going on there and it's not going to go well for Salamander Lad) which makes it possible for character aspects to be portrayed more subtly.

(This really has been difficult to discuss without mentioning the nostlgia factor, by the way! I may have to get into specifics in the future. :))